Not much has happened lately, s’pose that’s why I haven’t written much! But, I know a few of you keep tabs on the Riley-Lewis’ family via this blog.

Easter was nice, we flew down to McAllen to visit Ian’s family and go across to Mexico. It got a little slow Friday night, so rather than stay til Sunday we flew back Saturday afternoon. First class both ways baby! Pays to work for an airline (knew there was some reason I was keeping this BORING job!) It was kind of funny (ok, maybe I felt a little bad, but only just a little!) that we hopped in after an hour flight refreshed and cheerful, and everyone else dragged in from something like 6 hour drives (I think they left Austin at 7 AM!).

It’s interesting to step into one of the Mexican border towns. A very different way of life. You see glimpses of the culture. People sell things that are handmade or bought from someone else. Lots of little food, drink, and trinket shops. An old mish-mash of multi-colored buildings, their paint all fading and chipping. Little girls and boys singing and playing accordions.

But the whole thing’s been corrupted with middle class Americans in Gap and Old Navy wandering around bargaining a pair of Oakley knockoffs from ten to six dollars when they could easily pay thirty, forty or more back in the states and afford it. One street off the main drag is complete poverty, or at least so it seems. The poor hold milk jugs cut in half tied to bamboo poles up to those walking overhead on the bridge across the Rio Grande.

Sad.

No one can cure all the world’s woes though, so we just have to all keep walking along, picking one another up when we fall and brushing off our dirty knees and bruised elbows. Remember the good times and the bad, help those in need, but enjoy our own fortune while we have it. It’s the very least the citizens of the world can do for one another.

Still, I’ll recall the dusty streets, mop-haired dark skinned Mexican children singing and playing, and the faded mismatched buildings as a view into a whole other culture. Not the most fortunate of the world’s citizens, but they have a bit of history, culture, traditions and community. For that they are all the wealthier.